


Sunshine Bathed in Scarlet

by ValiantRose



Category: Haikyuu!!, Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Blood and Gore, M/M, Tokyo Ghoul AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-03
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-03-10 09:11:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3284825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ValiantRose/pseuds/ValiantRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was never supposed to be like this. Never did he want Daichi to find out his secret this way, with the lifeless corpse he was devouring in front of him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Worry, Stress, and Warmth

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Falling Leaves](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2285595) by [setsumiyakami](https://archiveofourown.org/users/setsumiyakami/pseuds/setsumiyakami). 



The tension completely seeped out of Daichi's shoulders as he pulled his arms above him, while his feet carried him towards his house. Today's practice had been a good one. Even at the start of a new term as captain, he could tell that it was going to be a good year as long as volleyball was concerned. There was the fact that two of the first years, Hinata and Kageyama, didn't get along at all and he knew that was going to cause him a couple headaches. Other than that Daichi felt pretty confident.

A soft sigh from the person beside him caught his attention. Now that was one thing that concerned him. His teammate and now vice captain Suga had been _off_ for the whole week and it was really starting to worry him.

He shifted his gaze and watched as Sugawara ran a hand through his hair; his eyes and expression were completely unfocused.

"Suga," Daichi said, the other's eyes finally focusing. "Make sure you get a good amount of sleep tonight.." He felt like a broken record; repeating what he said earlier that day. However, Sugawara didn't seem to mind it as a small smile spread across his face.

"Yes yes, I will." He replied. "Oh yeah.." His eyes widened a bit in surprise. He began rummaging through his school bag then pulled out a single piece of paper. How the paper stayed completely immaculate Daichi did not know.

"I got this from Shimizu." He passed over the paper then quickly closed his bag. "It's the information on the new first years."

"Ah, perfect." Daichi said as he briefly looked over the page.

"I meant to give it to you earlier but..."

"It's alright." Daichi replied in an understanding tone. By the state of his focus it wasn't difficult to believe that something like that would've slipped his mind. "Thank you."

The rest of their short walk continued in a comfortable silence along with some idle conversation, like they always did. Soon enough they came up to the corner where they usually split up. After saying their quick goodbyes Daichi continued towards his house.

His feet kept moving but his mind was on everything but the world around him. Even though Sugawara still held his bright and gentle demeanour, Daichi could tell that his vitality had drained from him. It wasn't like him to miss nights of sleep and be so unfocused; Sugawara didn't even scold him for being so concerned about it like Daichi expected he would.

He knew he was probably being pushy by constantly asking if he was ok or not, and if Sugawara didn't want to tell him it was none of his business, but he just couldn't help it. He cared; he cared too much he often told himself. He cared about his team and the people he came in contact with but Sugawara had always been a special case.

Ever since he met him, Daichi had always felt a certain pull towards Sugawara: like he couldn't help but get swept up in his pace. Whenever they were hanging out or playing volleyball or having lunch together or anytime they were near each other Daichi would become consumed with a brilliant warmth; like he was basking under a ray of sunlight that never allowed itself to be covered by any cloud. These feelings that he held, deep within his chest, only became stronger as their time together went on. If it were a year ago, Daichi would have shrugged off his feelings and convinced himself that he was just really fond of the other. However, in the past year he had learned that his feelings went deeper than that, that he loved Sugawara, and if something was wrong, in any way, Daichi wanted, needed, to know if there was some way he could help.

He didn’t even notice that tension had seeped back into his shoulders. Daichi exhaled and relaxed once more. That was when he realized that the paper in his hand, the one he had received from Suga, was completely crushed.

“Damn…” He sighed at the paper before beginning to straighten it out, unfolding it from its tight ball. After the paper was back into a semi-decent state, Daichi went to put it into his school bag. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind ripped it from his hand and down one of the dark side streets. Without thinking, he ran after it.

The water-worn buildings blocked the strong wind and Daichi was thankful that he was able to get the paper back without too much of a fight. Even though he ended up a fair distance away from the main road, he still had sight of it and could get back with ease. After picking the paper up, Daichi began to make his way but a noise unlike any he had ever heard before arose from the darkness around him.

An undeniable chill swept through his body and Daichi was immediately frozen in his tracks. The unfamiliar sound reached his ears again; harsher and more potent than the first time. The sound was low but it surrounded him with a nauseous air and, with adrenaline beginning to pump faster through his veins, Daichi was able to pick up the subtleties within the sound. Harsh crunches reminiscent of small tree branches snapping; wet squishing akin to someone sloshing their way through mud. His stomach dropped as he realized how close the sound actually was. Daichi thought that since it was so quiet maybe, just maybe, the sound was farther off than he believed it to be but that idea was quickly shoved from his mind when a harsh tearing sound came from his left. This time, however, Daichi could detect soft gentle breaths among the mix. Someone was there.

It was in that moment that Daichi couldn’t help but remember all the small whispered warnings exchanged between his classmates. Whispers of being careful when walking home: being careful of the ghouls. He had heard many conversations about the rise in their area's ghoul population and programs regarding this had been on the tv whenever he looked.

Even with these thoughts flipping through his head, Daichi couldn’t help but want to turn and look. He knew he was being too curious. He should have been moving back to the main street and back to his house where he’d complete his homework, have a warm bath, eat, and finally curl up on his bed. But his body moved on it’s own. Daichi turned to his left and, when his eyes adjusted to the scarce bit of light, his mind went completely blank.

There were two human shaped figures. One strewn out, lifeless and ribcage completely torn open, and the other was hovering over their mangled body. The smell of iron hung heavy in the air when the other tore a large chunk of flesh away from the corpse. The nauseating sound that accompanied it made his stomach twist and bile threaten to rise in his throat. His heart began to pound, faster than it ever had before and, with every beat, he could feel his pulse pound against the walls of his skull. However, he couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit of ease; almost like he was secure at his distance.

His eyesight became sharper as he continued to observe. The ghoul had a slim but strong frame and their soft looking hair was ruffled and clung to the nape of their neck. Daichi pulled out of his observations as the ghoul in front of him tore off an arm of the body with a chaotic ease; reminding him where he was. _You need to leave_ , Daichi’s mind ordered, _now_ , but no matter what his mind told him his body wouldn’t move. He was completely welded in place as his mind began to plead, to scream for him to move, to leave, and to make his way back home. Instead, he stood transfixed as the ghoul continued to tear apart and consume the lifeless human, bit by bit.

He tried to tear his eyes away from the scene but Daichi unconsciously slipped back into his observations. The ghoul was completely dressed in black and Daichi could make out little bits of white lettering on the back of their jacket. When he was able to read them, his eyes widened and he struggled to take his next breath. It read 'Karasuno High Volleyball Club', the letters on the back of his own jacket. He couldn’t see their face but the silvery hue of their hair that shone even in the dim backstreet light gave him enough information.

When the pieces all fit together Daichi wondered why his heart didn't just give out right there.

_Suga…_

 


	2. Nagging Hunger

It nagged at him all day and he knew he'd have to deal with it sooner or later lest he go insane. Throughout the entirety of the day, the all too familiar feeling of hunger nagged at Sugawara. Gnawed at his brain. Constantly grabbed and scratched for his undivided attention. The day only seemed to move slower as his teachers droned on about their various subjects. Subjects that he'd usually be listening to wholeheartedly but his own hunger prevented such a thing.

Sugawara didn't know, but he believed that the hunger of humans and ghouls was completely different. When humans were hungry, their bodies got sluggish and lethargic. When ghouls were hungry however, it only made them stronger, more primal, and much easier to snap bones and rip apart flesh. For him, this response only made the scent of the humans around him that much more unbearable. It was like a intoxicating fume permeated the air and surrounded him with suffocating intent.

Suddenly, Sugawara felt pressure release and sharp plastic begin to dig into his right hand. He removed his head from his left hand, which he'd been using as a makeshift pillow, to look at the crushed pencil in the other. Quietly, he began to pick off the tiny pieces of plastic and slivers of graphite. That was his third pencil of the day.

When lunch came along, Sugawara knew he wasn't in the most ideal situation. He'd been putting off eating for around two weeks now since the investigators, natural enemies of the ghouls, we're getting more weary of their area. This only made it much harder for him hunt without running into difficulties. His most recent hunt had resulted in an encounter with an investigator and luckily only his mask received sufficient damage. This however, caused his current dilemma. With his mask damaged, if Sugawara wanted to hunt he would risk being discovered but with his vision becoming sharper and his conscious mind getting hazier he really couldn't think of it as much of a risk. Focus, he thought as he slapped his cheeks and rubbed his eyes in protest. Some of his classmates looked away from their lunchtime conversations with concerned expressions.

"Sugawara-kun, are you alright?" One of his classmates asked. Right away he turned to address them with a smile.

"Yes, I'm alright. I'm just tired." Their concern eased away and they went back to their conversations not before telling him to get some sleep tonight. His words may have been enough for the others but it certainly wasn't enough for the one sitting in front of him: Daichi.

"Suga.." Daichi said; his deep voice filled with worry.

"Yes?" Sugawara asked back.

"Are you sure you're alright? You've been off for awhile." Sugawara didn't know whether it was what Daichi said or the tone in which he said it in that caused his insides to clench in nervousness. He hadn't been hiding it as well as he would've liked. His smile turned into a more gentle if not a more genuine one.

"I haven't been sleeping very well." Sugawara said with a sigh. After getting a glance of Daichi's even more worried expression he quickly added. "But it's alright. I'll be fine." For the moment, this did little to change Daichi's expression.

"Suga," Daichi began in a soft voice as he leant a bit closer, "if something's going on, you can tell me you know." It made him bleed a little, hearing Daichi say that. Sugawara gazed down at his small lunchbox and thought about what he should say. _You could tell him_ , a voice in his head suddenly spoke up, _you could tell him the truth_. His stomach clenched at the thought.

He had never told Daichi the truth about him, that he was a ghoul. Also, ghouls were something that never came up in their day-to-day conversations. At some point, Sugawara hoped to tell him he just had never found the proper time or place. However, the fact that he was withholding all this from Daichi weighed on his consciousness, especially in times when they were alone together. Any of his other friends or even other club members didn’t know and never at any point did it affect him like not telling Daichi did. When he would feel the need to tell him, there was always another voice in his mind that stopped his words dead in their tracks. _Then he’d know what you do, he’d know that you kill people_. These thoughts were enough to keep him up at night and they did on occasion. Just the thought that Daichi would think different, think badly of him, was all it took for his heart to be swallowed by a black pit of anxiety.

He pushed those thoughts to the side for the moment; Daichi was awaiting an answer. He did want to tell Daichi but now was definitely not the time or place.

"I'm fine." He said quietly while leaning forward to rest his elbows on the desk they were sharing.  "Really. I just haven't been taking care of myself properly." Sugawara couldn't help but feel like his first few words fell empty. Surprisingly, Daichi didn't seem to think the same way as the muscles in his face relaxed.

"Alright, but make sure you get a good amount of sleep tonight. We wouldn't want our vice captain to be off his game, now would we?" Daichi said with a smile with his unease seeming to go away. Sugawara chuckled at the sentiment.

"Of course!" They continued to eat their lunch; Daichi's soothing voice calming his overactive senses.

 

The rest of the day passed in a blur. The notes he'd taken for his afternoon classes were short and barely legible and his memories of them were hazy and obscured. Sugawara hardly had the concentration to remind himself to ask for the notes tomorrow.

He was a mess, he could tell that much. He didn’t even want to think about what would happen if this level of focus continued on into practice. When practice did roll around however it went exactly opposite of what he had expected. Keeping his body in motion proved to be quite useful at honing his senses and the sport itself allowed him to use up some of his seemingly never-ending strength. Set after set, dive after dive, Sugawara’s energy never wavered as all the other’s became increasingly wrecked with sweat pouring down their faces.

“Narita nice recieve!” Suga yelled out as the ball came sailing towards him in a smooth arc. The sound of shoes squeaking across the floor cut through the air as Tanaka ran up for his attack. When the ball reached his fingers to be gently cradled, time seemed to slow as he set the ball up for Tanaka’s spike. _Lower, tighter to the net_.

A loud satisfying smack echoed when the ball connected with the board on the other side of the net. The ball deflected downward in a mock block and, instantaneously, everyone remaining on the floor dove to get even just a piece of the ball.  After a split second the ball hit the ground and rolled away to nudge a nearby wall.

“Alright, time to clean up.” Daichi announced and the team’s collective affirmation reverberated off the walls of the gymnasium.

Narita and Kinoshita immediately started to gather the stray balls left on the court while Ennoshita helped Daichi take down the net. Sugawara walked back towards the benches and gently picked up his water bottle; making sure to not squeeze too tightly. Crushing a hard reusable plastic water bottle with one hand would be fairly difficult to explain to his teammates.

"Sugawara-kun." A gentle voice as light as a wind chime said from beside him. There Kiyoko stood with her bag on one shoulder and a sheet of paper in her hand.

"Ah, Shimizu. Leaving early?" Kiyoko nodded.

"Can you give this to Sawamura when you're done?" She held out the paper towards him and Sugawara gently took it off her hands.

"Of course." He replied while glancing over the page. It was a list of the new first years joining their team along with the schools they'd come from and positions they’ve played before. "Thank- " Sugawara began but Kiyoko was already walking out the gym doors.

Resting the paper down on the bench, Sugawara went to go take another drink of water but a sudden stabbing pain in his forehead stopped him. Sugawara quickly inhaled and shot his hand up to his forehead; covering his eyes. Sugawara could feel the familiar frigid blackness spreading across his eyes  

"Suga-san, are you alright?" Tanaka asked from his left.

"Yes, I'm fine." Man did he feel like a broken record. "Just got a sudden headache is all."

 _Not now, anytime but now_. Sugawara forced his eyes back to a normal state, taking a lot of effort to do so, before turning to look at Tanaka beside him.

"So, what'd ya think those two are gonna do?" Tanaka immediately asked him.  

"Hinata and Kageyama?" Sugawara replied as he began to put on his jacket.

"Yeah.” Tanaka replied; eyes visibly brightening and a smile plastered across his face. “I bet they'll come knocking and say ‘let us back in if we can beat you in a match’ or something like that." Sugawara chuckled as he took another sip from his water.

“It’s possible, but all they have to do is show a bit of teamwork is all.”

"Captain!" A low voice and a higher one yelled from outside, harmonizing one another unintentionally. They all looked over to the door in surprise before Daichi went to open it. Sugawara and Tanaka flanked closely behind him. Unsurprisingly, outside Hinata and Kageyama stood rigid, almost as if at attention.

“Let us challenge you to a match!” The two of them announced as soon as the gym’s light hit them. A small chuckle fell from Sugawara’s lips as he pushed a hand through his hair. Somewhere to his right, he could hear Tanaka laughing, but there was a lighter tone to it, almost as if he was laughing out of admiration.

“The two of us against you!” Hinata’s light voice chimed. Tanaka’s laughing only got harder.

“Are these guys for real?!” Before any other comment could be made, a quiet whisper of “ready and” could be heard and the unlikely duo shouted out once more

“We’ll prove that we can cooperate as a team!”

“I heard them say ‘ready and’ just now.” Sugawara couldn’t help but comment; they were trying, and that alone brought a smile upon his face. Tanaka was still losing it with laughter and began to lean up against the door frame.

“But, I really can’t say I hate these guys.” Tanaka said between laughing breaths.

“What happens if you lose?” Daichi finally spoke up after watching the scene unfold. For a moment, they both froze in place before Kageyama replied. In that moment a slight breeze from the outside drifted towards the third years. On that breeze, Sugawara could detect a scent so familiar it was practically ingrained into the walls of his house: the scent of a ghoul. Sugawara looked out to the dark school grounds as far as he could see but he couldn’t detect anyone other than the two in front of him. So, with curiosity, Sugawara focused his senses, trying to detect who might be the ghoul, but with so many scents around him and only being properly introduced to the two first years earlier that day made him unable to differentiate them.

“Tanaka, I want you to be on Hinata’s team.” Daichi said and it made Sugawara realize that he had spaced out on the conversation.

“Huh? Me?” Tanaka asked in disbelief.

“You said you don’t dislike them, right?” Daichi replied.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I wanna play with them.” Daichi sighed at that. They must have been talking about the annual first year three-on-three match.

“I see.” Daichi said in a disheartened tone. “And here I thought you’d be the only one who could discipline these troublemakers.” Sugawara could practically hear the gears clicking in Tanaka’s head as Daichi’s words and charismatic tone registered.

“Oh well! I guess it can’t be helped then!” Tanaka’s boisterous voice ripped through air as he hopped down the steps to join the first years outside. He began to pat them on the back and ask them how glad they are that they’re on his team.

After that they began to wrap up their conversation; stating conditions for the three-on-three before closing the door once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided to split this up in four parts instead of three because this chapter would've been really long so...

**Author's Note:**

> This fic turned out a lot longer (and more emotional) than I originally planned. Oh well.  
> Well, this is basically a prequel to Falling Leaves so if you haven't read that you should go check it out for more Haighoul goodness! Thank you for reading!


End file.
